Dan Hurley hired as next UConn head coach

Rhode Island head coach Dan Hurley has been hired as the new head coach of the Connecticut Huskies. Hurley was being courted by UConn, Pitt and Rhode Island ever since the Rams were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament last week.

Hurley is 113-82 in six seasons at URI, going to back-to-back NCAAs and winning the Atlantic 10 title this past year. The build-up of the program was impressive enough to make Hurley the top mid-major coaching prospect this off-season.

The Huskies are looking to return to glory as quickly as possible, firing previous head coach Kevin Ollie earlier this month after a second straight losing season. Ollie won a surprise NCAA title in 2014, his second year as head coach, making it four titles for UConn in a fifteen-year span. The previous three came under Jim Calhoun, who ran the program for 26 years and won 625 games.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Goodman, Hurley will bring at assistant Tom Moore with him to UConn. Moore was previously an assistant under Calhoun at UConn.

The job will certainly start off as a rebuild, as an already depleted roster expects to see it’s top two players head off to the NBA (Terry Larrier has already announced such).

Hurley is the son of Hall of Fame St. Anthony HS head coach Bob Hurley and younger brother of Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley.